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Wednesday 20 January 2010

What a day!!!

I arrived early at Chai to let the builders in to start demolishing the inside of the Chai and was greeted by the most incredible sunrise almost announcing a new era!

Once the builders were underway we started work in the cellar. Today was going to be a huge day! David the filter man was already outside getting the filter machine ready, Chris was busy setting up the pumps to start blending and petit Denis was cleaning the stainless steel vats ready for filling. It looked like spaghetti junction but in actual fact, it was organised winemaker chaos!

We filtered and blended to the exact percentages (which JMS and I decided previously) of wine from one vat to the next. Every vat had to be spotless because the cellar is my kitchen and a clean tidy surface is essential!

By 17:00 we had filtered the necessary wines and now we needed to put them all back into the original vats – so they were once again full into the chimney necks to prevent the wine from oxidising.

Bottling the La Roussane de Baron tomorrow so that has yet to be set up along with 100 old barrels from the Dordogne Chai to be loaded before we leave so the builders can start in morning!

I will let you know tomorrow how I feel…


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